Enterprise cloud adoption in 2013 prompts data security questions

Adoption of cloud-based services in 2013 should spur new questions in most organizations about data continuity, data security and reliability, according to a new threat report.

Spend time with the lawyers and make sure that all your needs are met and requirements are clearly outlined so that both sides know their responsibilities when an incident takes place.

Chester Wisniewski, senior security consultant, Sophos

The Sophos 2013 Threat Report warns that businesses take on new risks when adopting cloud-based services. Risks that need to be addressed during contract negotiations, well before data is transferred to the service provider's massive data center. In some cases, cloud-based services increase an organization's attack surface and weaken the security controls and policies already in place, said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security consultant with the UK-based security firm.  

"Spend time with the lawyers and make sure that all your needs are met and requirements are clearly outlined so that both sides know their responsibilities when an incident takes place," Wisniewski said.

Organizations need to consider three questions when adopting cloud-based services, he said.

1. How will information leakage be prevented?

Services such as Dropbox enable employees to easily store and share documents containing company data. While companies initially attempted to clamp down on third-party services such as Dropbox, today, some organizations are adding controls, such as encryption to ensure that sensitive data doesn't fall into the wrong hands, Wisniewski said.  The security technology protecting the data should be deployed properly and in a way that makes it easy for users, he said. "You need to know that the data is secure before it goes up in the cloud," Wisniewski  said.

Wisniewski believes cloud-based services have the potential to amplify an organization's broken approach to data security. There are ways to provide security controls that enable employees to access data with mobile devices or remotely tap into systems in the cloud. An Apple iPad app can provide encryption and decryption capabilities to provide another layer of protection. "Finance, sales and marketing people shouldn't have to be cryptography geniuses to protect data," he said.

"You have to clean up all the known stuff that is innocently happening and then look at what is remaining," Wisniewski said.

2. Are cloud providers being properly vetted and security standards being placed in contractual requirements?

Targeted attackers have learned that business partners, typically the smaller firms that service large enterprises, can be an entryway into a major corporate network. Manufacturers of parts in the aerospace and defense industries, shippers and suppliers can all potentially fall into an attacker's cross hairs, Wisniewski said.

"Cybercriminals are realizing that small companies that are business partners with the big guys have lax security but are still trusted entities," Wisniewski said. "It's become a real problem."

Contractual arrangements should include the ability to ensure a third-party's systems have been tested and have the appropriate security controls, he said.  Cloud providers should provide proof that they are meeting security standards and provide a mechanism to allow independent testing to take place. "There are firms that have had PCI assessments within months of a credit card breach, so a piece of paper showing compliance doesn't hold that much weight," Wisniewski said.

Data retention, failover, incident response procedures, system monitoring and maintenance should all be clearly communicated in the contractual agreement. Ensure that if the relationship with the cloud provider sours, there is a way to get the data out and move on to another provider.

"If you're that paranoid and you can't come to an arrangement to properly protect the data to your standards, then you need to run your own data center," Wisniewski said. "Part of cost benefit of using companies out in cloud is that it is massively distributed; you don't know where your data is going to be. Some of those things are controllable by contract but other parts of it like who can pop a hard drive out of a server in many cases is beyond your ability to control."

3. Can you prevent snapshotting of virtual servers that capture current operating memory images-including all working encryption keys?

Rather than using public clouds, many firms are using virtual machines to set up private clouds within their own data centers. The approach is seen as a great way to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, said Wisniewski, but it also opens up questions about data security.

Extremely technical hypervisor attacks have been demonstrated by security researchers, but the risk of the sophisticated attack being used by a cybercriminal is minimal, experts say. Instead, organizations face potential pitfalls with virtual servers. Configuration errors and poor policies can open up weaknesses that can be used by an attacker to gain access to sensitive data.  For example, whenever a virtual snapshot is taken of a system state â€" a common way to backup systems â€" often passwords and encryption keys are in memory because they have to be available to decrypt files. The snapshots are a great time saver and great backup mechanism, but it needs to be stored securely, Wisniewski said.

"You have to store encryption keys in memory, but you should obfuscate them in memory," he said.

Blue Coat to acquire UTM networking firm Crossbeam

Blue Coat Systems, Inc., is merging with high-end networking appliance vendor Crossbeam Systems Inc. in a move the company says will bolster its security and network optimization strategy.

There is a classic user whose requirements are only met by something like a Crossbeam box. It's a high-end, niche part of the market.

Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The two companies are currently owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Blue Coat was acquired in February for $1.3 billion.  Crossbeam was acquired by Thoma Bravo last month.  

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Blue Coat, which sells a line of Web security gateways and wide area network (WAN) optimization software, said Crossbeam provides the company with support infrastructure and a high-end, scalable platform.  The combination could help bolster its presence in more complex enterprise IT environments.

Crossbeam, headquartered in Boxborough, Mass., sells the X-Series network security appliances, which provide a platform to consolidate security technologies in one location in the data center.  The company can run unified threat management (UTM) platforms, combining firewalls, IDS/IPS and secure messaging software from a variety of vendors.  The company said it is seeing growth in its line of virtual appliances. The company's specializes in data centers with high traffic volume, such as telecommunications providers and ISPs. Its customers include 16 of the 20 largest carriers in the world, including Telefonica and BT, as well as enterprise customers Volkswagen Group and Motel 6.

Blue Coat said it plans to integrate its software with the X-Series, making the combination an ideal control point in the network for managing security of both inbound and outbound traffic from all users in any location, said David Murphy, president and chief operating officer of BlueCoat. New customer initiatives and an increasing number of devices accessing rich media content are driving the need for more capacity and performance in the network, Murphy said. The two companies have a significant set of mutual customers using Crossbeam application blades, he said.

"Many of these companies are extending the enterprise to do mobility and new applications from a business standpoint for their employees and customer needs," Murphy said. "They're hybridizing their needs around the network topology and the Crossbeam business continues to be there and I believe will continue to grow."

Murphy said Blue Coat intends to maintain the Boxborough location and make further investments into research and development. Both firms also have a strong channel-partner based ecosystem, he said, selling through value added resellers and service providers. The aim will be to bring sales teams under the Blue Coat umbrella, he said.

Move an "arranged marriage"

"The value-add was that you could have a common platform for all of these leading edge software vendors," Jon Oltsik, a senior principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group said of Crossbeam appliances. "It's really instrumented for network processing; it's a high-end sophisticated box."

The acquisition of Crossbeam makes sense for Blue Coat, Oltsik said. Combining Crossbeam's hardware expertise with Blue Coat's software and distribution could address both firms' shortcomings, he said.

As for Crossbeam, Checkpoint, Sourcefire and other security vendors began building out their own high-end appliances, making it difficult for a third-party to compete in the space, but "there is a classic user whose requirements are only met by something like a Crossbeam box. It's a high-end, niche part of the market," Oltsik said.

Crossbeam's high powered networking equipment was popular when enterprises were trying to figure out what unified threat management was, said Pete Lindstrom, research director at Spire Security. The firm still has a number of large clients that maintain big data centers and huge physical networks, Lindstrom said.  For the rest of the industry, on-premise, large data centers are falling out of favor, he said.

"This is an arranged marriage," Lindstrom said. "We'll have to wait and see how strong the integration is and what it means for Crossbeam and Blue Coat customers and partners."
The Thoma Bravo security portfolio includes Entrust, SonicWALL, Tripwire, and LANDesk Software.

A new targeted Trojan, Batchwiper, wipes data from drives

A targeted data wiping malware has been discovered by The Iran National CERT, or Maher. The malware, referred to as Batchwiper by Cupertino, Calif.-based security vendor Symantec Corp., wipes files on different drives at predefined times.

Researchers say the design is primitive but the malware is efficient. Batchwiper can wipe disk partitions and user profile directories without being recognized by anti-virus software. It is not widely distributed.

Symantec has recovered samples of the Trojan matching the hashes in the Maher advisory. According to Symantec, the samples will wipe any drives starting with the drive letters D through I, along with files on a logged-in user's Desktop. Symantec researchers are continuing to analyze the binaries.

Targeted malware attacks have been on the rise in recent years. Batchwiper, however, shows no similarities to more sophisticated targeted attacks like Stuxnet, Flame or Gauss. Experts say companies need to make malware defense a top priority. Steps IT teams can take to protect their companies against malware include offline malware and threat detection, whitelisting, and browser security.

Hacktivists Anonymous and UG Nazi attack Westboro Baptist Church

Hacktivist group Anonymous has released personal details of the members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church.

Reports said the Kansas-based church, known for its picketing of military funerals in the US, made comments regarding the Connecticut school shooting last Friday, and that it plans to ‘picket Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment'.

Anonymous responded by releasing the personal details of the church's Phelps and Hockenbarger families and launched an online petition to "legally recognise Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group". At the time of writing, this has gained more than 90,000 signatures.

It also hit the church's ‘God Hates Fags' website, although at the time of writing, this is still accessible. The Twitter account of Westboro spokesperson Shirley Phelps appears to have been taken over by hacktivist group UG Nazi.

Anonymous released a video statement, saying: “Since your one-dimensional thought protocol will conform not to any modern logic, we will not debate, argue, or attempt to reason with you.

“Instead, we have unanimously deemed your organisation to be harmful to the population of the United States of America, and have therefore decided to execute an agenda of action which will progressively dismantle your institution of deceitful pretext and extreme bias, and cease when your zealotry runs dry.

“We recognise you as serious opponents, and do not expect our campaign to terminate in a short period of time. Attrition is our weapon, and we will waste no time, money, effort and enjoyment, in tearing your resolve into pieces, as with exposing the incongruity of your distorted faith.”

The church had not responded to the incidents. The church and Anonymous have clashed before after Westboro's website was taken offline in February 2011, which led to Westboro calling Anonymous ‘foppish hackers' and ‘pimple-faced nerds'. However it later emerged that pro-US hacker The Jester was responsible for the attack that went on for several weeks.

The Jester and Anonymous have clashed on multiple occasions, but in this instance the Jester said: “The apparent cooperation between myself and Anonymous on WBC is an eclipse, we're still Sun and Moon, with our own agendas. #Peace.”

Start Up Failure Rates: The Definitive Numbers

Back in 2008, I wrote a post on start-up survival rates that has proved to be very popular. Because that post was based on the 1992 cohort of new companies, many people have asked me if the numbers are true for today's start-ups. Roughly speaking, the answer is yes.

But don't take my word for it. Look at what the U.S. government data show. In the chart below, I present the latest available numbers from the two government statistical agencies responsible for providing data about new businesses: The Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The chart includes both new establishments, which the BLS defines as new economic entities doing business at a particular location, and new firms, which it defines as new companies. While new firms may have more than one establishment and new establishments may be started by existing companies, researchers have found that the number of new firms and the number of new establishments are similar.

While you could find these numbers directly from the original sources, you won't find them together. Moreover, they don't appear very high in Internet searches. Because the older and less accurate numbers are easier to find than the newer and better ones, lots of inaccurate information about new business failure rates is constantly being reproduced and reused.

The figure below shows six sets of numbers. The longest series, the 1994 BLS EST line, shows the percentage of new establishments founded in 1994 still alive in every year through 2010. The figure below the curve is the percentage of companies started in 1994 still alive that many years after founding. While the 1994 cohort is old, you can't get the survival rate of businesses in their 17th year by looking at more recent cohorts.

The 1995 BLS EST, 2000 BLS EST, and 2005 BLS EST lines each track the five year survival rates of the cohorts of new establishments founded in 1995, 2000 and 2005 respectively. Five years after they were started, 50, 49 and 47 percent of the new establishments started in 1995, 2000 and 2005, respectively, were still alive.

The remaining two series come from the Census Bureau. The 2005 CENSUS EST line shows the survival rate of new establishments founded in 2005 through 2010, while the 2005 CENSUS FIRMS line shows the survival rate of new firms started in 2005 over the same period. Five years after they were started, the Census Bureau finds that 45 percent of the new establishments and 43 percent of the new firms were still alive.

While I have thrown a whole lot of numbers at you, I am making a very simple point: The typical new business started in the United States is no longer in operation five years after being founded. That's true whether statisticians at the BLS or Census are doing the measuring and it's true whether you measure new establishments or new firms.

Startup Survival Rates

Source: Created from data from Longitudinal Business Database 1977-2010, Census; Business Employment Dynamics 1994-2010, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Your Content Marketing Strategy for 2013

Small business owners, answer these questions as honestly as you can:

• Did your company jump on the content marketing bandwagon in 2012?
• Did you create and curate informative and practical content for your target audiences?
• Did you find a way to disseminate your content, getting it in front of potential clients or customers?

If you answered “yes” to all of these, then it is likely to be a very happy holiday season for you and your employees. Profits are up, bonus checks are being written and the prospects for the future couldn't be any brighter.

As a small business owner, you get it. You understand the power of well crafted stories. You know how content can be used to establish thought leadership, to enhance brand awareness and to supercharge your SEO efforts.

If, on the other hand, you are one of the many small business owners who answered “no,” to any of the above questions, I fear this may not be the jolliest of holiday seasons for your business.

Don't despair! Just because you missed a golden opportunity in 2012, it doesn't mean you can't take advantage of content marketing in 2013. Remember the saying:

“Better late than never?”

Well, it certainly applies to content marketing.  What can content marketing do you for? Depending on the nature of your business, it can:

• Position your company as thought leaders (key for service providers).
• Keep your current customers/clients engaged with your brand on an ongoing basis.
• Provide information of real interest to your target audiences.
• Create mechanisms that convert the people engaged with your content into regular users/purchasers of your services or products.
• Put a human face on your company, creating emotional bonds that can lead to enhanced sales.

Whether you have never engaged in content marketing or want to expand upon your content marketing efforts, this is the perfect time to either start on or expand your content marketing efforts. This is the time to ask the following questions (and make sure you have the answers to each and every one of them):

What are your storylines?

The first step in any content marketing campaign is to figure out what stories your team is best suited to tell. Who is in the universe of potential clients and what interests them? Content marketing only works when the content you produce serves the needs of your target audience:

• Are key team members truly thought leaders? Do they have industry insights? Do they offer practical information of immediate utility to the reader/viewer?
• Can you offer advice to entrepreneurs? Do you have “war” stories to share?
• Do you have amazing case studies to share?
• Have you conducted your own research or commissioned research on industry trends?
• Do you offer unique products or services?

What is your commitment to content marketing?

How much time and effort are you willing to commit to your content marketing campaign? Some businesses limit their content marketing to a handful of white papers a year. Others become true publishers, turning out a steady stream of content, whether it's in the form of blogs, videos, article or even tweets.

As you budget both financial and human resources, you need to decide his much of your marketing and advertising budgets will be dedicated to content marketing. A successful content marketing campaign involves a real commitment. Are you prepared to make it?

Who will be responsible for creating your content?

Poorly written content can damage your credibility and your business. If you don't have a strong writer on staff, hire one now. If it's not in your budget, think about paying a freelance copywriter. It's not just about quality writing. Video has become a major aspect of content marketing. An amateurish video can make your company look like a second-class operation.

How will you be distributing your content?

Just because you've created great content, it doesn't mean than anyone will see it. A major element of a content marketing program is a well-planned distribution plan:

• Do you have the internal or external public relations expertise to get your content in the hands of traditional and digital media?
• Do you know where to find the Web sites that would be interested in publishing your content?
• Do you have the SEO expertise to make sure your content shows up prominently in Google searches?

All of this may seem very daunting, but content marketing, when done properly, can make a major impact on your company's bottom line.

If you don't have the internal expertise to strategize and execute a content marketing campaign, find a reputable agency that not only understands content marketing, but can provide you with a list of success stores for which they are responsible.

Wishing you a happy and content-filled new year!

British Landscape Photo via Shutterstock

Small Business SEO Trends to Keep an Eye On

As we approach the end of the year it's obviously a nice time to take stock and make sure all your logistical ducks are in a row, and that's true of SEO and online marketing as well.

Lots of smart folks have already made some really interesting predictions and talked about key factors to consider in 2013.

I won't focus on any specific crystal ball work, but I do want to call out five important trends that small businesses will want to keep an eye on in 2013.

1. Link Diversification is Increasingly Important

It's obviously part of the focus in this post, and indeed it's a really important SEO issue that's become incredibly important in 2012 with Google's Penguin updates, and will likely continue to be important.

From a small businesses perspective the important thing to keep in mind here is that a lot of SEO short cuts (such as spending a couple hundred dollars a month with an overseas SEO firm, or a firm that primarily leverages overseas labor) to get a lot of low-quality links with very aggressive and specific anchor text (meaning if you run Paul's Plumbing and your company is located in Newton, Massachusetts, you would use “Newton MA plumbing company” to link to your site).

What Does this Mean for Small Businesses?

The important thing to note here is that it's not “always wrong” to get a link with targeted anchor text, and getting a stray link from a site that's low quality won't sink your site, but the links to your site need to be a mix of different qualities, with different linking texts, that don't look the same as a spammy link profile. Some of the other trends will talk a bit more about how best to get there.

2. Content Thickness & Quality is Increasingly Important

Since a lot of those lower cost, more aggressive tactics no longer work, that means that the tactics that do work are and will likely to continue to be things that require more (or “thicker”) unique content and content of a higher quality. The good news here is that in a lot of ways high quality content works and will continue to work even better, because the lower quality tactics are no longer competing with it in the search results (because that content doesn't rank).

What Does this Mean for Small Businesses?

The biggest factor here for small businesses is that the $xxx per month outsourced, hands-off link building service will no longer be a viable option for getting quality search traffic. Small businesses will need to start to focus on creating solid content (or having some solid content created for them). In some cases, unfortunately, it'll become more expensive to maintain the same rankings. The benefits are that this type of content (unlike getting 500 links from forum profiles) can drive referred traffic and have other benefits for your business outside of SEO.

3. Google Authorship May Become Increasingly Important

As Google rapidly updates their algorithm and looks for additional ways to sort signal from noise in search results, one thing to keep an eye on is Google Authorship. For those unfamiliar, this is effectively a means for an author to identify a page or post as his or her work to Google, and those posts are then highlighted in search results with information about the author.

What Does this Mean for Small Businesses?

This is a fairly simple, low-cost opportunity to implement authorship to get some additional “real estate” in search results for your content, and also to build the authority of your Google profile in the event that authorship becomes a more important ranking factor. There is a great list of resources here that should get you or your developer started on implementing and understanding authorship.

4. The “Shrinking Organic Search Result”

There has been a lot of talk about Google's shrinking SERP and the fact that results from a single domain taking up entire search results are getting more prevalent. This can mean that specific domains may get more of the search engine real estate, and/or it can mean that the search results are simply showing more ads and more Google properties.

What Does this Mean for Small Businesses?

Unfortunately this really means that small businesses need to pay closer attention to alternative means of getting attention and traffic outside of SEO â€" if Google is “shrinking” the organic SERP by including more ads, it'll likely become important for your business to understand how to get included in those ad blocks and how to optimize for them, whether they be traditional AdWords, Google Shopping, or otherwise.

5. Increasing Importance of Mobile & Video in SEO

None of this is news, but more and more people are using smartphones and tablets and the technology around consuming video on the Web is consistently making improvements. None of this is likely to be interrupted into 2013, so it's important to understand how you can be well positioned to show up in various types of mobile and video search results in 2013.

What Does this Mean for Small Businesses?

The first step here is awareness â€" it's important to think about how your customers and prospective customers behave when they're looking for you. Not every small business needs to focus deeply on mobile and video, and of course you have limited resources, so ask yourself questions like:

• Do my customers / prospects look for services like mine on smartphones and tablets?
• What sorts of services are they likely to search for my business and businesses like mine on (Yelp, FourSquare, Google? Many of these types of sites and apps outside of Google can become a “search engine” as soon as someone starts querying them for information)?
• If I create a video is that likely to reach my customers and prospective customers?
• How much effort will it take to better position myself for exposure through mobile or video search?
• Is that effort going to be worth it based on how much of my customer and prospective customer base is I'm likely to reach?

The good news is that while there are a lot of mobile-specific search optimization tactics, much of the work you'd typically do around good old fashioned marketing will help you to rank well in mobile searches. Video for small businesses can be a bit trickier, and of course can have a lot more benefits than just SEO. This is a great guide to thinking through a video strategy â€" just from the length of the post you can see there are several moving pieces to consider.

In general, I think most of the trends we've seen in 2012 and are likely to continue to see into 2013 are centered around:

• Short cuts & lower cost SEO not working
• Higher quality content and additional work being required to be successful (in some case to maintain or regain the same rankings you'd previously gotten for cheap)
• The higher barrier to entry being an opportunity for some to get very high return for the additional spend and effort required to create good content
• Google continuing to move into certain verticals more and more aggressively, so that understanding additional traffic opportunities through paid channels (and channels completely unrelated to search) becomes increasingly important

So small businesses will want to think about how this should impact their overall content strategy, as well as what it means for SEO as part of an overall marketing mix.

SEO Photo via Shutterstock

Tech Review: Check Out Imprego To Create Mobile Ready Landing Pages

Over the weekend I had a real quick look (nothing in depth) of a new service, Imprego.

For small businesses that don't need or don't have the time or resources to create a full fledged mobile web site, they might want to consider just creating a simple landing page for their mobile users.

Sure it's not a full blown web site, but for some uses a business just might want to capture information from mobile users or showcase one service or product of their business.

Imprego offers drag and drop, great looking templates, lead capture, stats and more.

One caution, it's always BEST to have all of your customers coming through ONE system. For example, your lead capture being through one backend fed to one database. So it would not be so great to have some of your customers coming to your main web site form and another set of mobile customers coming to your mobile database form.

Either way Imprego looks pretty interesting.

Let me know what you think.

Technology Continues To Revolutionize Work

According to formal work surveys Smallbiztechnology.com is a solo company enterprise â€" me â€" as its only employee.

However, what they miss, is that throughout the year, I hire professionals responsible for event management, marketing, editorial support, free lancer writers, photographers and more. The government does not see this money flow now count it as much.

For small businesses looking to GROW â€" you don't need to hire EMPLOYEES for your business â€" at first. You can hire smart professionals. In fact I run much of my business through Elance.

Elance's 2013 Predictions of Work Study predicts that students, online work and ObamaCare flexibility will make up a big chunk of the new work force in 2013. For those out of work this is BAD but it's also a HUGE opportunity for small businesses to connect to these newly released professionals and an opportunity for these professionals to reinvent themselves.

While having a professional you can see and touch in your office is AWESOME, you might get the same or better results by hiring someone you can't see physically.

When working with remote professionals ensure you have CLEAR and MEASURABLE work you want them to do and clear and frequent communication.

 

Two Security Scenarios: Hosted Or On Premise Solutions Offer Choices For Your Business

As you consider securing your small network there are two options:

a) install software on your end points (computers, notebooks, servers) and properly configure your network.

b) option “b” is to invest in cloud security solutions and ensure every end point is managed online through a cloud solution.

Many security vendors offer this option, including Total Defense, whose solution includes three layers of security:

• Advanced endpoint anti-malware and application controls: protects Windows, Mac and Linux devices from malware, secures & controls applications being used by end users and protects against threats from removable media;
• Web filtering and malware protection: cloud-based URL filtering including sophisticated anti-malware security, real-time dynamic content analysis, outbound data leakage prevention, application controls, quota management and policy compliance;
• Email security: cloud-based anti-spam and email threat prevention, providing a clean email connection and securing

Using cloud based security, every device with the installed software, is fully managed and controlled by you (and/or an IT administrator).

Speak with your tech consultant about which option is best for you.

Other cloud security options include Symantec and GFI Security

Security B-Sides London set for third event in 2013

Security B-Sides London will return for the third time in 2013.

The free event, built by and for information security community members, will take place on 24th April 2013, at Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall. The event is supported and sponsored by MWR InfoSecurity, KPMG, Cigital, Dradis Professional and 7Elements and is expected to see more than 500 participants.

The first wave of tickets will be announced this month via its Twitter and LinkedIn Group, while the deadline to submit a talk has been extended to 5th January 2013. More information can be found here.

Mital Goel, co-organiser of Security B-Sides London, said: “Security B-Sides is unique because it is driven by the information security community, for the information security community, and encourages lively and honest debate on the real issues affecting the information security industry today.”

Martyn Ruks, technical director at MWR InfoSecurity, said: “MWR InfoSecurity is proud to be a conference core partner of B-Sides London 2013. Having sponsored the conference last year and been part of such an important community event we are keen to get involved again.

“As a company we invest heavily in knowledge sharing and believe that events such as B-Sides London are invaluable to the community, providing a platform for discussion on the latest thinking and research in the infosec arena. We are delighted to be part of an event that gives something back and just keeps on getting better.”

Why You Need a Mentor

I know everything. Or at least, I'd like to think I do. But I have to say, running a small business has brought me down a notch or two. I realize there's so much I don't know. That's where having a mentor comes in handy.

I've had a retired oceanographer/SCORE leader as a mentor. A business and life coach. A VP of marketing. Another marketing consultant. A leadership management expert. I've come across people who know more than me, and I've built relationships with them so that I can benefit from their knowledge and experience.

Mentors Make You Smarter

Any entrepreneur should want to be better at what she does. But there's only so much knowledge you can glean on your own. And experience? Well, that takes time, and if you're impatient, you want to get smarter faster. There's something to be said about learning from people rather than books and blogs. A short conversation with a mentor can help you understand the mistakes he has made so that you can avoid them yourself.

Having access to a mentor, you can ask any question you wantâ€"an opportunity you likely won't have with your competitors.

Mentors Have Been There

As I said, you can learn from your mentors' past mistakes. It's a huge boon to talk to someone who has worked in your industry and can help carve the straightest path to success for you. Any mentor worth their salt will be enthusiastic about helping you get there faster than they did.

Finding a Mentor

You might not have a clue about where to start in finding a mentor. I say, look around. Look at the people you interact with on a regular basis:

• your client
• the guy you always talk to at networking events
• your neighbor
• a woman from your church

Mentors can be found everywhere, and they don't have to be in your industry. You might benefit from a mentor who has successfully run one or more businesses, or one who has spent decades in corporate America, or one who works in the industry you target.

Your focus here is in finding someone willing to impart wisdom to you, to spend time with you regularly (each week, month or quarter is good) to address areas you want to work on.

Determine Your Path

Before committing to a mentor/mentee relationship, outline what you hope to accomplish rather than go into it willy nilly. What areas do you consider your business weak in? Make a list of concerns and questions you have (this might also help you determine the best person to mentor you). And be ready to commit!

Having a mentor isn't as simple as meeting in their office every few weeks. You need to be committed to listening and taking action based on their suggestions. Otherwise, you're wasting your time â€" and theirs.

Having a mentor can be professionally rewarding, and can help you grow your business in ways you couldn't otherwise grow it.

Mentor Photo via Shutterstock

Pioneers of Digital Inspires Professionals Beyond Digital Success

The new book by Paul Springer and Mel Carson (@digipioneers), Pioneers of Digital, Success Stories from Leaders in Advertising, Marketing, Search and Social Media, may seem too early of book to write.

Business benefits from cloud platforms are just dawning, right?

Well, the book's scope and timing are more than on track.  While a nod is given to the earliest of computer innovators such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Pioneers of Digital showcases 20 digital professional luminaries whose choices and outcomes are changing the face of how small business is getting done.  I picked the book up while perusing NetGalley online, attracted by its promise of remarkable profiles.  It was a promise well kept.

Springer and Carson have combined experiences that compliment the men and women they selected to honor. Springer, author of Ads To Icons, is head of Research & Postgrad Development for the Faculty of Design Media & Management at Buckinghamshire New University in the UK. Mel Carson was a key figure at Microsoft Advertising as a Digital Marketing Evangelist and is currently writing and speaking about online advertising.

Although a few people noted may be familiar to those who spend countless hours at a Web browser, many are unknowns representing regions as varied as the industries the authors selected.  The result from reading the book is a broad perspective that shows how organizations can best apply technology to strategic advantage.

For example, Thomas Gensemer represented a causeâ€"centered online funding campaigns, instrumental in raising $600 million for President Barrack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He learned from fail-fast experiences, like the quote below, about Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Lessons that made Obama's online fundraising tactics a political game changer:

“Despite not winning elections with (Howard) Dean and (General) Clark's Presidential campaigns, they provided valuable lessons.   One lesson included keeping all correspondences up to date. After one campaign, Gensemer discovered a mailbox filled with unread e-mails that were responses to a feedback link…From this Gensemer learned not to create opportunities for people to engage if you can't service them….”

Analytic practitioners should love that perspective, as well as the treatment given to Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0.  Other standouts include  June Cohen, who lead the team that grew the well-known TED videos. And Vanessa Fox, an ex-Googler who was influential in the Web development solution, Webmaster Tools.

Many of these leaders come from startup environments that can seems more akin to Silicon Valley than to Main street. But the profiles are well organized so that reading does not require drudgery.  Each segment starts with a brief bio and ends with three “sound bytes” â€" takeways and insights from the featured pioneers.  Sandwiched between bios ‘n' bytes are career descriptions as well written as a good novel and as intriguing as watching your favorite band on a VH1 Behind The Music episode (though without video or music, but that is a nit pick).

I adored reading Vanessa Fox's story, an intriguing mix of math and linguistics that spurred her early reputation for computer user interface.  Her viewpoint of linking online with offline activity showed promise in 1995, way before a user interface was in vogue:

“By combining her love of writing with her new found technical know how, she was able to start improving user experiences by helping make connections which today might seem so obvious, but in 1995 didn't exist because most programmers simply didn't think that way. A traditional offline staple like printing collateral to take to an event was elevated to a whole new level by digitalm, “Some of us started thinking there was so much more we can do. We could host conference brochures online just in case we run out at an expo.  We could make it so you could link between different ones and maybe you wouldn't need to print them at all.”

Another worthwhile story is Gurbaksh Chahal, a multi-millionaire before the age of 30 through creating Web agencies ClickAgents and BlueLithium.  His profile highlights the importance of good business practices over being enchanted over the newest tech:

“I remember March 2009 when the Dow hit 6600, people thought it would go to 5000. Fast forward to now…and you have a birth of companies trying to do what the original dotcom companies did in the first boom…but they have no idea how to even generate revenue let along profit…It's incentivizing the wrong type of entrepreneur and creating the wrong type of business. It's basically trying to go ahead and flip to the greater tool, and that is not a real business.”

From these kinds of profiles, readers will gain an overall gimpse into similarities and differences that matter in entrepreneurship.  Many of these profile pioneers were hands-on and self-learners â€" not so much self-made as much as a personal realization that the learning never stops. That perspective is understandably integral to digital-related industries, but Pioneers of Digital makes the mantra a living one in the professional lives shared.

Readers interested in social media or seeking interesting business people for professional inspiration will be more that satisfied.  Pioneers of Digital has an approach that reminds me of Jewels, a book on African American women and their professional lives.  But for fun tech history reading, combine this book with Bricklin on Technology, a homage to tech from the “Godfather of spreadsheets,” Visicalc founder Dan Bricklin.

Ultimately read Pioneers of Digital to know what it takes to truly stand out in your field.

Out Of Compliance: Reinstate Your Company

No one starts a business with the expectation that it will fall into bad standing. However, things can happen. For example, in the flurry of building a business, a small business owner may forget to send in their annual report to the state â€" or they may not even realize that an annual report is required in the first place.

No matter how you find yourself in the situation, know that you can get your business back into good standing. And it may not be as hard as you'd think. Here's what you need to know to get back into good standing, or keep your business out of trouble in the first place.

How Does a Company Get Into Bad Standing?

When a corporation or LLC fails to meet all the requirements of the state where it's incorporated (or the state where it has a foreign qualification), it can fall into bad standing. Here are some common examples:

• It fails to file its annual report or pay its annual fees on time (and perhaps for several years in a row)
• The Registered Agent resigns from representing the company (perhaps because the company fails to pay the Registered Agent fees)
• It fails to pay its state franchise taxes (business taxes)

What Does It Mean If Your Company Is In Bad Standing? 

Companies that are in bad standing may be administratively dissolved, placed in non-compliant status, or revoked by the state where they incorporated. In this case, the benefits of corporation or LLC formation (such as limited liability protection) are lost.

How To Reinstate Your Company? 

The specifics depend on your state, but generally speaking, you will need to file a reinstatement on behalf of the corporation or LLC in order to return to active compliant status. You may also have to file some additional documentation and pay fees to the state, depending on the reason why your company fell out of good standing in the first place. Here are the basic steps:

• Identify why your company fell out if compliance (this can typically be accomplished by contacting the secretary of state office)
• Submit reinstatement forms to the secretary of state office
• Pay all outstanding fees due to the state (this can include overdue state franchise taxes)

When you reinstate your business, your corporation or LLC keeps the original filing date of formation. Reinstating your business means you can regain all the benefits of corporate/LLC status, including limited liability protection to safeguard your personal assets.

By reinstating your business, you can keep running your business without worrying about an uncertain legal status.

Ignoring A “Bad Standing” Isn't A Good Option

If your company lost its good standing because you never paid your annual fees or franchise taxes, it may be tempting to just start over with a brand new business. However, keep in mind that while you may not be actively operating your original business, the state is still keeping tabs on it.

Any unpaid fees, taxes, and penalties will continue to accrue each year â€" until ultimately the state may place a levy on your personal bank account (since when a business has five shareholders or less, the owner often needs to act as a personal guarantor).

The moral of the story? If you discover your business is out of compliance or in bad standing, take the appropriate steps to correct the situation…and the sooner, the better.

In no time, your business will be back in good standing and you can move full steam ahead.

Full Steam Ahead Photo via Shutterstock

Continue Your Education in 2013 By Attending a Small Biz Event

We have our final list of 2012 containing events for you to attend in January 2013.  The Holidays may be right around the corner, but that's no reason not to plan to continue your education and networking in 2013.  Attend one of these small business events â€" network and learn!

* * * * *

Online marketing webinars

Various dates in January 2013

Check out the upcoming online marketing seminars from MarketingProfs, schedule on various dates in January 2013, including:

How to Effectively Engage Your Customers on Facebook, January 10 with Ekaterina Walter

How To Become a Trusted Brand and Industry Leader, January 17 with John Morgan

 

New Media Expo
January 6-8, 2013, Las Vegas
NMX, formerly Blog World & New Media Expo, is the first and only industry-wide conference, tradeshow and media event dedicated to providing valuable content for Bloggers, Podcasters and Web TV producers. Pre-register now and receive Super Early Bird rates.

Entrepreneur Magazine Growth Conference 
January 10, 2013, Dallas, TX

Entrepreneur Magazines 5th annual Growth Conference features keynote speakers, educational seminars, and the Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, along with the Entrepreneur of 2012 award winners.

Affiliate Summit West 2013
January 13-15, 2013, Las Vegas

This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit the Small Business Events Calendar.

If you are putting on a small business event or contest, and want to get the word out, please submit it through our Events & Contests Submission Form (it's free). Only events of interest to small business people, freelancers and entrepreneurs will be included.

Brought to you as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

20 Business Book Gift Ideas

Brand Advocates by Bob Fuggetta (@robfuggetta)

• What it's about: You'll pick up strategies to leverage your business's' biggest fans and turn them into a powerful marketing force.
• Who to give it to: The small business owner, CEO and marketing executive.
• Why they will love it; There are lots of examples of how companies of all sizes recruited and engaged their most satisfied customers.
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Brand-Advocates-Enthusiastic-Customers-Marketing/dp/1118336038

Likeonomics by Rohit Bhargava (@RohitBhargava)

• What it's about: Being likable is more powerful than you might think. personal relationships, likeability, brutal honesty, extreme simplicity, and basic humanity are behind everything from multi-million dollar mergers to record-breaking product sales.
• Who to give it to: Give this book to the person who is continually dumbfounded by the fact that people are enthralled by personality over “substance” or statistics.
• Why they will love it; Bhargava provides a sound argument for
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Likeonomics-Unexpected-Influencing-Behavior-Inspiring/dp/1118137531

Thinking Sideways by Tamara Kleinberg (@imaginibbles)

• What it's about: This book is a terrific resource for brainstorming, idea generation and team strategy meetings. It's filled with templates and practical out-of-the-box exercises that will tickle your brain.
• Who to give it to: Business owners, marketers, managers, team leaders, and anyone who has to pull ideas seemingly out of anywhere and turn them into mind-blowing strategies.
• Why they will love it; This book is just plain fun. It's a book you'll want to have close by to jiggle your brain into overdrive when you need to come up with something really big.
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Think-Sideways-game-changing-playbook-distruptive/dp/0985244704

Get Lucky by Thor Muller (@Tempo) and Lane Becker (@Monstro)

• What it's about: Learn to create your own serendipity and good luck. Get Lucky shows businesses how to succeed by fostering the conditions for serendipity to occur early and often.
• Who to give it to:  Give this book to a small business owner just starting out or one that's been down in the dumps about the economy or the election.  This will inspire them to create their own luck
• Why they will love it; This book is loaded with all the stuff business book junkies love; stories of serendipity in action at well-known companies including Avon, Target, Steelcase, Google, Facebook, Walmart
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Get-Lucky-Planned-Serendipity-Business/dp/1118249755

Yes To The Mess by Frank J. Barrett

• What it's about: Barrett combines his background in jazz and business to show how organizations can manage chaos and crisis
• Who to give it to: Business managers who are trying to organize their marketing and operations to be more effective under marketplace or industry uncertainty
• Why they will love it; They will learn how to balance
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Mess-Surprising-Leadership-Lessons/dp/1422161102

Invisible Capital by Chris Rabb

• What it's about: A can-do attitude, a great idea and hard work aren't all there is to entrepreneurial success. In world that is defined by an uneven playing field, entrepreneurs will need Invisible Capital to succeed.
• Who to give it to: If you've got an entrepreneur or business owner in your life who is frustrated by today's economic or political situation, this book will help them create a success mindset and strategies.
• Why they will love it; Invisible Capital will challenge them to examine their resources more critically and appreciate the appropriate steps to build resources for success.
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Capital-Unseen-Entrepreneurial-Opportunity/dp/1605093076

Beam Straight Up by Fred Noe and Jim Kokoris

• What it's about: The history of Jim Beam bourbon, from
• Who to give it to: People who enjoy a little history about the booze they choose!
• Why they will love it; In the same vein as Guitar Lessons, Beam Straight Up will provide a great way to learn about business outside of the jargon
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Beam-Straight-Up-Family-Bourbon/dp/1118378369

The Rebel Entrepreneur by Jonathan Moules (@Jonathan_Moules)

• What it's about: This book will give you great insights and advice in starting and growing a business in the post “Great Recession” economy.
• Who to give it to: The book would be a good business read for anyone thinking of going into business, just starting out on their rebel entrepreneur journey but also any longtime rebel entrepreneurs with any sort of a business track record
• Why they will love it:  It has an easy to read straightforward style style with plenty of examples for all kinds of small businesses.
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0749464828

Successful Hiring Isn't Just About Skills: It's About Attitude by Mark Murphy

• What it's about: 46% of people hired in 2012 will fail within the first 18 months on the job. This book will help you hire the right people for the right job with the right attitude.
• Who to give it to: This book is for CEOs, presidents and business owners, as well as anyone on the hiring team,
• Why they will love it; Hiring managers will get the right perspective on hiring the right people with the right attitude at the right time.
• Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Hiring-Attitude-Revolutionary-Recruiting-Tremendous/dp/007178585X

Gifts for the Book Lover

People are always asking me how I can read so many business books every week for review. Well, it helps being a business book junkie! I can't get enough of them. Oh well, some women love shoes and I love business books. But don't ask me which I love more, hehe.

I will say that I do have a few items on my wishlist as someone who loves reading anywhere and everywhere. So, if you've got a business book junkie in your life, then here are some insider secrets that are on MY list:

• Kindle or iPad cover. I have a Kindle and it currently doesn't have a cover. I'm starting to look at device covers like most people look at clothes or shoes! I actually feel like “dressing” my devices. Some days I feel floral and other days I feel like the device needs a more professional look. If you think I'm crazy â€" well go ahead. You can never have too many device covers.
• Book or kindle light. I don't know about you, but I cannot get to sleep until I've read at least a sentence or two. Now I've heard studies that say that reading from a lit screen (especially in bed) can impact your ability to fall asleep. Not only that, but I've also heard that your brain processes information differently when it's on a written page. That said â€" your book lover is going to need a book light - or a little light for their original Kindle.
• Creative Book Ends. This is on my list people! If you've ever been on a hike and seen these little stones piled on top of each other along a trail - this is what I do with books. My husband has started joking about the fact that the books have become decorative elements in our house. Now a creative set of bookends might just solve my problem. If you know someone who has books all over their house â€" they will love this.
• Personal Library Kit.  Digital readers aren't for everyone . I mean it. There's just no tactile enjoyment in the sharing - right? So if your bibliophile is an avid book sharer - or you want them to be â€" why not give them this wonderful library kit. They can literally lend books and keep track of who has them.
• Conceal Book shelves.  This is another terrific way to get those books off the floor and turn them into a decorative asset in your home! You can learn a lot about a person byu reading the titles on their shelves. This is a great way to let your book-lovers' personality shine through!
• Read in bed â€" holder. One of the reasons I got a Kindle was because I love to read in bed - but the bigger books were simply KILLING my wrists. I mean, I just couldn't get comfortable and then when I would reposition myself, the book would close and I'd lose my place! So here is a non-digital way to solve that problem. I found this while surfing online. I can't vouch for its effectiveness, but it sure looks like it might solve my book juggling problem.

Now that you have a list of all the best business books for 2012, why not take it a step further and create a bundle of a present for your book lover.  One idea is to think of a theme and then combine several business books together around that theme.

For example, you can choose a them of Craftsmanship and bundle “Practice Perfect” and “So Good They Can't Ignore You” as a package.  Put that together with a “crafty” kindle cover and you have a fun gift.

Let your imagination run wild and have fun creating customized and personalized gifts for everyone on your business gift list.

Double Dip Recession Or Thriving Entrepreneurship Eco-System?

Britain's economy, like many other Western countries, looks precarious. The solution to the malaise is in building a thriving entrepreneurship eco-system. With that core belief, we have been working with various players in the country to stimulate entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom.

With new businesses and new entrepreneurs increasing in number and energy level, London's Old Street in Shoreditch has even been nicknamed the Silicon Roundabout in parody of, or tribute to, Silicon Valley. Universities and colleges like London School of Economics, King's College, Imperial College, Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London, all have entrepreneurship clubs to provide networking and encouragement.

Incubators like TechHub offer regular gatherings, in an effort to simulate the high velocity environment of Silicon Valley, and stimulate similar levels of activity locally.

At 1M/1M, we have run several contests this year sponsored by A&N Media, part of DMGT, Britain's largest media group. A&N Media's audience includes 130 million consumers, and the company is interested in working with entrepreneurs with aligned online products and services that can monetize this audience better, while stimulating entrepreneurship in Britain. The prizes for these contests were 1-year scholarships to the 1M/1M program.

I heard ten pitches from UK entrepreneurs in person:

Drummond Gilbert, goCarShare

GoCarShare is aimed to connect drivers with paying passengers who wish to travel the same way, allowing them to share the journey costs. It uses Facebook to connect users with friends of friends and a rating system to help create a trusted community. GoCarShare will take a commission of 15 % of the paid transaction between the passenger and driver.

Will Hodson, Platter

A cross between Instagram and Pinterest for food, along with other features such as micro blogging, vertical search, and so forth. Will proposes to use affiliate marketing as a way of monetization similar to what Pinterest is attempting.

Shara Tochia, Fitness Freak

A bookable Web platform that allows users to search for and book fitness classes and activities. It also integrates with booking partners to offer an easy-to-use service and a review platform for journalists and users.

Zoe Peden, Insane Logic

An educational iPad app called MyChoicePad. It uses symbols and sign language with speech to enable choice and communication for children and adults with learning or communication difficulties.

Steven Lucero, PopUpShopUp

A social media for popup shops, restaurants, cinema, entertainment, charities or any and all temporary retail events, utilizing a curated member-based website, weekly email newsletter, mobile application and check-in technology. PopUpShopUp aims to become the marketplace for consumers to visit to learn about all popup events first in London, then throughout the UK and finally, in the top 100 urban areas of the world.

Hire Space

A website that allows you to find, book and pay for publicly available space online. Hire Space works with a diverse range of venues, from schools to private function venues and provides a platform for the sale of associated services such as catering and entertainment.

Jonny Britton, TimeMaps

A company that makes digital history maps to illustrate events over time. The company sells to schools, homeschoolers, parents and other educators all over the world.

Jason Cooper, Simplytics

A mobile advertising engagement analytics model to help better measure user engagement with ads.

Neill Watson, Enjoy!

Karoke, a Facebook game that taps into the vast pool of singing fun that dominates prime time TV.

Jack Tang, Thestudentjob.com

A social-network-based job portal connecting students with local employers looking for casual staff on a one-off or part-time basis.

The winners of the contest were Enjoy! Karaoke, Thestudentjob, InsaneLogic, Platter, and goCarShare.  Then, we co-hosted an online pitch fest with Imperial College, London, where we also listened to multiple interesting pitches:

Christopher Corbishley, Imperial College

London pitched Print AdExchange, a marketplace for buying and selling last minute print ad inventory for newspapers, magazines, etc. Chris points out that the media world is moving away from print advertising, and all advertising technology emphasis is now on the Internet. However, print is still a very large business, and there is an opportunity to apply technology to make that business run more efficiently. Nice analysis!

Michael Newman, my1login

An identity-management solution to address the problem that each of us has:  numerous varied usernames and passwords that we have to remember. A widget to preserve these in a secure place would be highly desirable. Everyone from Facebook to Google to Microsoft wants to own the single identity space, though. Challenging business.

Yvonne Biggins, Movellas

A community for writers that nurtures them to publish fiction and non-fiction and leads them towards becoming published writers. The community already has a fair bit of engagement. Millions of story views have taken place. The big question Yvonne needs to wrestle with is the monetization model.

Bruce Hellman, uMotif

A website and mobile app for monitoring diets, medications, and other health related items. The ‘quantified self' movement has taken the e-health world by storm. Bruce is attempting to break into this extremely crowded market.

Print AdExchange and Movellas won that day.  We co-hosted a similar session with the London School of Economics Entrepreneurs and European Student Startups, and A&N media awarded scholarships to the most promising entrepreneurs:

Joseph Virgili, RedEddy

A marketplace and cloud-based platform for engineering simulation and modeling software. The segment is dominated by CAD vendors like Ansys and Dassault at the high end, as well as MathWorks. Joseph sees an opportunity for bringing a significantly less expensive offering to market.

Abhishek Garodia, PlayEnable

Effectively could be described as OpenTable for gyms and sports venues. Consumers interested in booking slots at gym-classes or on tennis courts, squash-courts, etc., would do so through PlayEnable. The challenge, however, is that they would need to convince every single gym / venue owner to install their software. Tough proposition. It took OpenTable a long time and huge capital to get there.

Patrick Danielm, Locus

A location-based service that helps people connect physically at venues like university libraries, museums, sports stadiums, etc. I am of the opinion that this product could be brought to market as custom apps by some of these major venues as well.

Vyacheslav Polonski, Cloudmarks

A bookmark aggregation service that collects your bookmarks across various browsers, networks, etc. Currently, the revenue model for the business is not fleshed out sufficiently. Quite possibly, the real customers of the offering would be media companies trying to understand which of their links are being widely bookmarked and shared.

The winners of the contest from the UK were Locus and Cloudmarks.  Our Kings College pitch fest featured several promising new entrepreneurs:

Dr. Dele Omotosho and Michela Menting, Happerture

A vertical ad network for healthcare mobile apps. As a concept, vertical ad networks have been quite successful, with companies like Glam Media, Travel Ad Network and Adify leading the pack. Happerture's presentation, however, had other elements of a review site and a storefront for mobile healthcare apps, which confused the pitch somewhat.

Brian Pietras, SpareSquare

A marketplace through which consumers can rent out storage space to students and professionals. This is a concept that we have seen before as well, and in fact, we're seeing quite a trend in the domain of ‘marketplace for sharing.' The success of Airbnb in renting to travelers has created variations of the concept in domains such as storage. It is definitely a reasonable and viable concept with many early players vying for market adoption.

Yetunde Murphy, Appsy

An outsourced mobile app development company. Now, speaking of a competitive space, this one is not competitive; it is hyper competitive. It is, obviously, a viable business, but one with not hundreds but thousands of competitors in it.

Timothy Armoo, Doodlar

A marketplace for urban designers to sell their T-shirts and other fashion merchandise to consumers. The closest comparable company to the concept is likely Etsy, although Doodlar's focus is not on fashion. The judges found the idea compelling.

John Hazell, Netcopy

A service through which publishers with significant paper archives can turn those archives into digitized, subject-specific articles that can be published online to harness additional search traffic. The A&N Media judges validated the concept on the spot saying that they have a similar effort under way, although not exactly the same.

Ali Ahmed, Lutebox

A social shopping site with a special emphasis on video-based collaborative discussions and screen sharing capabilities. Ali has gathered a good number of retailers and has started monetizing through an affiliate model whereby retailers receiving traffic through the site fulfill the orders. Again, an interesting concept targeted towards women 22-44 to begin with.

The winners of that contest were: Brian Pietras, SpareSquare; Timothy Armoo, Doodlar; John Hazell, Netcopy; and Ali Ahmed, Lutebox.  In addition to these relatively early stage companies, I want to also introduce you to LanguageLab, a company that is already quite successful, generating $5M+ in annual revenue. The company is co-founded by Shiv Rajendran and David Kaskel in 2005, the company focuses on digital learning for languages in an interesting yet contextual virtual environment.

LanguageLab teaches English in more than 70 countries using audio-visual virtual environments. Currently Language Labs caters to large corporations including Chevron, DHL, Emerson, Air France, the British Council, and more.  Language Labs is growing at a rate of 300-400% per year, and taps into a consumer market of a billion individuals wanting to learn English. It is fitting that the English teach English to the world!

The UK is in dire need of economic regeneration, and a concerted effort at entrepreneurship development is the only way this would happen. We are happy to help!

British Landscape Photo via Shutterstock

5 Trends in Coupon Marketing for 2013

The first time I heard about Groupon was from a small business owner - Surfy Rahman, co-owner of Indique Heights in Washington DC. in 2009. He mentioned it as a user and not as a business owner.

Since then the coupon offers or Group-buying space has evolved a lot. The companies in this space that I have subscribed to along with Groupon are:

If you take a look at the range of my subscriptions they are a good representation of the spectrum of deals available now.

The concept of coupons is not new. It has existed as long as business has existed as a marketing tool for business owners to attract new customers and sometimes to retain existing customers.  Companies like Groupon pioneered a trend where the offer was based on a combination of factors:

• The deal
• Number of deals offered
• Location
• Market specifics
• Time when they could be used

Under ideal conditions, coupon offers should have given businesses access to new markets and customers and a way to fill capacity during lean periods. The speed of the industry growth lead to several bumps both for the coupon companies and the business that used the coupons.  Here are some pitfalls that occurred in some of the coupon offers:

• Customers turning up in large numbers on the first day the offers opened and/or last day of the offer
• Staff dissatisfied when patrons using restaurant coupons were not calculating the tips at the full price
• More existing customers using the offers and businesses not getting exposure to new customers
• Businesses not setting a logical limit to the number of coupons sold and opening themselves to operational nightmares
• Sometimes no clear understanding of timeline and merchant payment terms

Despite the pitfalls mentioned above, many small business have had successes using coupons. One of the most important factors is the ability of the coupon offers to change customer behavior. I wrote about this in a previous post “How Online Tools Helped a Family Farm Get New Business.” Consumers love these deals.

My friend, Dr. Sanjay Jain has taken classes in photography and art that he had always dreamed of and could achieve it when the barrier of cost came down with a Groupon offer. When I put this question on Twitter, many in my network said they had tried new restaurants and became regulars at other business.

Coupon or group-buying companies have two kinds of customers. The end consumer who pays for the coupon and uses it. The business who partners to make the offer. Negative stories from merchants have received far more prominence than success stories. In his article, “5 Groupon Success Stories And Discount-to-Loyalty Strategies” TJ McCue writes:

“There are two big Groupon benefits for business owners that I see: One, that you dramatically increase your visibility. Two, you have no out-of-pocket advertising expense. Okay, you may have to spend on materials or product, but if you do it right, you can at least break even and generate new business.”

As we look forward towards 2013 at the buzz around the coupon industry here are some of my thoughts on trends in 2013:

Expanded Localized Deals

• The challenge in 2013 will be to increase the number of end users and merchants.
• Expanding to more local merchants and targeting customers in the local area.
• More niche verticals from both nationwide and local coupon companies.

Focus on Increased Online Commerce

• Trends like Groupon goods will increase procuring goods directly from producers to the customers.
• B2B services that offer self-serve couponing tools will also increase.

Increased Resources and Tools for Merchants

• The bigger players like Groupon introduced new tools to help its merchant customers - GrouponWorks  a portal for merchant resources , Groupon Rewards for merchants to manage incentive programs for returning customers and a scheduler tool. Living Social on its part introduced an online ordering system for restaurants to take orders from customers using a Living Social coupon.
• In order to enable credit card payments Groupon introduced a payments tool for its merchants similar to Square or Intuit's GoPayment.
• Just like UPS mastered and offered logistics for merchants and Amazon offers logistics to sellers on Amazon, more coupon companies will offer a turnkey process to connect businesses with customers.

Consumer Flexibility in Customizing Deals

• Today the coupon is valid for a specific time after which the monetary value of the coupon is redeemable .
• Offering different redeeming models may make this a better experience for both merchants and customers.
• Think of an offering where the customer can buy a coupon redeemable when the merchant sends a text or tweet  when the business is less busy.
• Innovation in the way referrak.

More Options in the Revenue Models with Merchants

• There are some differences how merchants are paid their share of the offer. There is an opportunity here to think of innovative methods.
• Imagine a small business gets funding from a coupon company with a agrement to run coupon marketing campaigns exclusively with the provider.

Looking at negative posts, it may seem that group-buying does not satisfy merchants but that is not true. In a Forsee study commissioned by Groupon:

“Groupon's overall merchant satisfaction was a very strong 79. The average satisfaction score for a B2B company in ForeSee's benchmark is 64.”

The Living Social website  quotes stats that 91% of deal redeemers give repeat business  and 29% of deal redeemers are new customers.

As a business owner when you make a decision about your marketing in 2013 definitely consider adding the group-buying to your marketing mix with careful consideration on avoiding the pitfalls I have mentioned above.

Next I will be taking a look at case studies. So if you are a merchant who has used group-buying, please contact me with your experience in the comments below.

What are your thoughts on this industry trends for 2013?

British Landscape Photo via Shutterstock

University of California Angers Many with Logo Change

The importance of branding can be seen when changes are made, no matter how small. Customers and fans of a brand and of what it represents may be  more sensitive to these changes than we might at first believe. Just ask the administrators at the University of California who recently decided to redesign the logo that has represented the organization for the past 144 years. Make the right branding decision and it can win new customers and make a strong statement about the value of the products and services you offer. Make the wrong one and…well, read on for more on the importance of making the right choices about your brand.

Brand Basics

How to send the wrong message. What university officials say they were trying to accomplish by changing UCs time-honored traditional logo was to stay abreast of the times and to promote the university's iconic status as a center of education. What they got was a storm of insulting tweets, Facebook spoofs, e-mail memes, and an online petition asking the university to reconsider its choice. Ask yourself what parts of your brand customers feel passionate about. The Christian Science Monitor

Change is a good thing. Just as some have advised the University of California to stand its ground in spite of all the ruckus, there are times when business owners must stick to their guns even when making changes that may alienate some. Rachel Strella, owner of Strella Social Media, a small two-person social marketing agency in central Pennsylvania, was forced to make just such a difficult decision a few months ago when she put an end to the free consultations she had been offering prospects, only to have many take her suggestions without retaining her. Strella Social Media

Actions speak louder than words. On the other hand, there are times when you unintentionally hurt your brand, not by decisive action but rather by the things you fail to do when dealing with others. Take reliability, for instance, says branding expert Isabelle Mercier Turcotte. Fail to deliver on what you promise, and you have already damaged your brand. It's a simple mistake your business can't afford to make, so be sure to meet obligations and deadlines to demonstrate your reliability. Otherwise, nothing else you say about your brand will matter to anyone. Leap Zone Strategies

Recipe for Success

Cooking up a whole new brand. Nutritionist and vegetarian chef Sarah Britton has found multiple ways to build her brand. Check out this brief but informative video interview with marketing coach Stephanie Ward in which Britton explains the many ways she has worked to create her brand, including social media, blogging, networking, guest speaking, holding cooking workshops, and beyond. There are many ways to build a brand. First, look for the audience you are trying to reach, then find a way to connect. Firefly Coaching

Turn on the star power. You may never have thought of yourself or your business as a celebrity, but when it comes to spreading news about your brand to a targeted audience, very similar rules apply. PR consultant Marsha Friedman believes it is time to “Celebritize Yourself” and has written a book by that title about how companies can add an element of celebrity into their branding. In this profile, Friedman shares more of the methods needed to create a star brand for your company that will attract an audience and then the customers you seek. BizSugar Blog

Resources

A brand for every business. Perhaps no better evidence of the importance of having cohesive branding can be found in the success of small business owners like Emily Brackett, who focuses on creating consistency across multiple marketing channels. Here, Emily talks about her own business and the service she provides. Developing a consistent brand for everything you do is essential for your business success: It creates a picture for your customers, of who you are, and of what you do. VisibleLogic

Free tools to get you started. The fact is that many small businesses don't have big marketing budgets to hire well-heeled PR and marketing firms to turn their brand into a household name. Hey, that's okay, says consultant Lori Byron. There are plenty of tools out there to get you started on the way to being publicist and chief marketer for your brand. After all, you know your products and services better than anyone. Here's how to start building your brand. Famous in Your Field